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User blog:Mothman Historian/Experiencing The Mothman Festival 2016
'Experiencing The Mothman Festival 2016' The Mothman Festival 2016 was the first Mothman Festival I was able to attend. My sister, her boyfriend and I left for the hotel on Friday September 16th. The closest hotel available was in Ohio, roughly thirty minutes away from Point Pleasant. The rest of the hotels were booked as the crowd of festival-goers descended on the area. My sister and her boyfriend have somewhat became my paranormal group at this point. They are the same ones that took me to The Mothman Museum in April and to the Moundsville prison in June. The interesting thing about our little three person team is that we were all born on the thirteenth. I was born on Wednesday August 13th, My sister was born on July 13th and her boyfriend was also born on August 13th of a different year. I call these trips part of my "Cross-county tour". Most people go on cross country tours but because I'm focusing on West Virginia, I only travel across counties. For this trip I was prepared with my camera, an extra memory card, an extra battery and a stack of business cards I had printed recently that had the link to The Mothman Wiki and my twitter. On the morning of Saturday September 17th, we awoke around 7:00am and journeyed down to the festival. We parked in the parking lot and had the option of either walking to the festival or waited in line for a tram which consisted of metal shells of seats pulled by a tractor. Opting for the lazier route we stood in line for in the crowded parking lot until the tram picked us up. 'The Festival begins!' We arrived on Main street in downtown Point Pleasant, the festival had begun. It was amazing to see so many people compared to my previous trip to the area. The festival had flooded the streets of the small town with consumers and investigators. I'd never seen so many people wearing Mothman shirts. At one point I saw a guy with a Mothman Tattoo on his arm. It was the ultimate gathering of Mothman fans. To see all these people with John Keel quotes on their back and clothing that details the legend of The Mothman was surreal. It verified that the demand was there and that others actually knew and cared about the things I'd researched and read about on the pages of books and websites. The world wants weirdness and West Virginia has it. The was a person wearing Mothman Costume, which was usually in the museum. The crowd gathered around to get pictures. There were several people dressed as the Men In Black walking around mechanically and periodically stopping to turn their heads and look around at people. They were even staring in through the windows of the Mothman Diner and museum. I assume they work for the festival in the same way that the person in the Mothman Costume does but it'd also be the perfect cover for the MIB if they were actually real. There were also a group of charity workers dressed as Ghostbusters with equipment and themed cars with the Ghostbsuter logo over the West Virginia state border. We looked around for a bit at the sights to see and the vendors selling books, art and clothing. 'Guest Speaker, Chad Lambert' After we did that for a bit we went into the state theater at 11:00 AM to listen to guest speaker Chad Lambert, creator of the Mothman comic "Return To Point Pleasant". He talked causally about the comic he created and about being in the Eyes of The Mothman documentary. He showed some of the art, told some life stories, talked about the award he got and the others he had been nominated for. He mentioned that he made the Mothman comic in 2008 but hes still talking about and "It just wont go away". He asked the audience some questions about certain books he'd been looking into and then he ended the talk early with about 20 minutes to spare. We took this time to look at more vendors and buy more things. I got a Mothman t-shirt, a handmade Flatwoods monster cup that says "Keep Appalachia Scary" and some Flatwoods Monster and Mothman coasters. We saw some "Creature Replicas" but they unfortunately didn't have a Mothman figure yet. We got a Mothman Issue of Fate Magazine from Rosemary Ellen Guiley who is also a guest speaker that we would see later. Then there was a guy who was selling colored mini-figures of monsters. I bought a gray Mothman and a green Flatwoods Monster. He said they were hand sculpted and that he also had robot figures that were done with a 3D printer. We went to Chad Lambert's table and bought the Return To Point Pleasant comic, The Lost Grooves variant cover and the art book; All of which were signed. 'Meeting Loren Coleman' I saw Loren Coleman, author of "Mothman and Other Curious Encounters" and founder of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland Maine. I'd talked with him on twitter before and even donated a copy of my West Virginia Bulletin Board of Strangeness. I went up with my group to introduce myself. I bought his book "Cryptozoology A to Z" and as he was signing it I told him that I was "Mothman Historian" on twitter and that I donated the bulletin board, he actually remembered and knew what I was talking about. He gave me a free t-shirt and signed the book "Thanks you for the support". I shook his hand and gave him my business card. Hopefully he didn't mistake my awkwardness for rudeness. I consider him an authority on Mothman and his book on the subject was one of the first few Mothman books I read. His chapter on the Flatwoods Monster might have been what introduced me to that creature. 'Guest Speaker, Susan Shepard' Then It was time to see the next guest speaker which was Susan Shepard. Shes the creator of "Haunted Parkersburg Ghost Tours" and loaned the Woodrow Derenberger Interview tapes to the Mothman Museum. She talked about the Woodrow Derenberger case and also the Merle Partridge case. She tried to compare and contrast the two. It was still interesting even though I'd heard a lot about these particular sightings before. Before she ended her talk, she announced that she was selling CD's of the Derenberger interview but she only had 4 copies as of now. So my sister left the theater, went to her booth and bought one for me. 'Guest Speaker, Rosemary Ellen Guiley' The next guest speaker was Rosemarry Ellen Guiley. Shes the author of a book I read called "Monsters of West Virginia" which I recommend. Shes also written tons of other books and I hear that Keel considered her "One of his favorite people". I can see why because she was an excellent public speaker. She spoke on the topic of "Who is Mothman" and laid out 25 wildly different explanations for the creature. It was interesting to see all the various ideas that people had for what Mothman could be. It was a very thorough and entertaining. As I listened I thought to myself "This is the best speaker so far" even though as a skeptic I considered some of the things she said to be outlandish or strange. Near the ending of the speech was the best part as she counted down the different explanations and finally got closer what she thought the creature actually was. Number one on her list was what really got me because it also happened to be my favored idea for Mothman's origin story and what I think works best for the Folklore. Rosemary started talking about Inter-dimension travel. It was amazing because I'd previously written about this and I even planned to raise my hand during the question part to ask about it. I had no idea that she'd list that as number one, the most likely. She even related it back to John Keel and his idea of Window areas. After that we went back outside to the festival. I'd picked the key speakers that I really wanted to hear from and the rest of the day was to enjoy the festival. We couldn't stay in the theater all day not only because it was hot in there but because we had other things to do and see. 'Meeting Artist Andy Finkle' Andy Finkle is a really great artist that I'd been talking to on Twitter. I found out about him through Loren Coleman who features his art in his museum and uses his art for various things such as in articles and even as his profile image. I re-tweeted some of Andy's Mothman art and said "Andy Finkle's art is great and I love that he keeps it accurate to the folklore. More Mothman artists should do that". He replied "Thank you! I don't do realistic necessarily, but I do like to do my homework. - See you at the Mothman Festival?". I said "Yep, totally! I'll probably buy some of your art too, if you are a vendor". He replied back and said "I'll be vending. Be sure to introduce yourself when you stop by." and so that's exactly what I did. I introduced myself saying that I'm Mothman Historian on twitter. Once again, surprisingly, he knew what I was talking about. I told him about how I like that his Mothman art is accurate to The Folklore. A lot of Mothman artists draw Mothman with arms or as if he is actually a Moth but Andy's art is closer to what the witnesses described. He said that his art is a more of cartoonish style but he likes to get the details right. It was a strange moment because we were basically having the exact same conversation we had on twitter, but in real life, face to face. I bought three different Mothman paintings from him and gave him my business card. We need more artists like Finkle who care about the subject matter. I'll try to make sure that most of the Mothman art I buy reflects the iconic headless, armless shape that the sightings imply. 'More Vendors And The Mothman Diner' Next I went to another vendor named Terrence E. Harvey who was selling West Virginia Folklore coloring books, posters and post cards. I bought the two different coloring books which actually had really great art in them and a poster that laid out all the important people in Ufology and Cryptozoology. It included people such as John Keel, Mary Hyre and Ivan T. Sanderson. The artist even signed the coloring books, he signed one saying "Watch out for the Mothman" and the other "Keep Watching the skies". I approve of that reference to The Thing From Another World. We stopped by The Silver Bridge Memorial then we went to the Harris Steakhouse which is owned by Carolin Harris whose helped run the festival. The diner was also what inspired the diner in The Mothman Prophecies Movie. It even had Mothman drawings lining the walls. On the day of the festival, it was extremely full but we manged to get a seat after leaving and going back a few times. I got steak, my sister got pork-chops and her boyfriend got a Mothman Burger. After eating we planned to go see the Historic Lowe Hotel that some claim is haunted. We would've stayed there as guests but by they had no vacancy. When my parents called a month prior and asked if they had any rooms they laughed at them. We were just going to go into the lobby and see what the inside of the place looked like but unfortunately they had a sign posted saying only current guests were allowed in during the festival. We walked back to the West Virginia State Theater for the next speaker. 'Guest Speaker, Ken Gerhard' We listened to Ken Gerhad's presentation. He is a Cryptozoologist and author of books such as "Encounters with Flying Humanoids". He talked about various sightings of large birds that had been reported and the various explanations for them. He mentioned that people come up to him all the time and give him their sightings. It was interesting to see someone who pretty much focused and specialized on giant bird sightings. Like Charles Fort he basically collects these strange reports and just presents them to us, allowing us to take from it what we will. It was interesting and he also seemed to know a lot about Zoology. It was like a mixture of a scientific lecture on biological flight and a campfire story about giant birds swooping down and carrying people away. He even outright said that it was troubling that they don't have good physical evidence for these giant birds existence. Ken seemed fairly honest as if he was simply trying to figure this stuff out and have an answer to why so many people claim to see this. I guess Its just something in the minds of the people, an evolved fear. I looked at it more as a study into a social phenomenon. We look to the woods and see humanoid beasts lurking. We look to the skies and see humanoid birds flying. I guess you could say that mankind has seen itself in nature. 'Guest Speaker, Nick Redfern' The next speaker was Author Nick Redfern. Unfortunately about eight minutes in my batteries officially ran out. Its was a good talk. He spoke on the topic of The Men and Women In Black. He simply told tales Men In Black encounters along with encounters of the female versions of the MIB which was also known to be reported. Two specific things he brought up was when a Woman In Black posed as John Keel's Secretary and a time that the Men In Black are said to have tried to silence a Lochness Monster witnesses. He ended the talk by mentioning when he went to the graves of the gangster's Bonnie and Clyde and saw a grave marked "M.I.B". Coincidentally yet somewhat interesting. He answered questions including "Have you ever encounters the MIB" which of course the answer was no. He was actually a pretty good public speaker, he held my attention and I'm sure a lot of things he talked about are also in his book "Women In Black". 'Guest Speaker, Loren Coleman' The last speaker of the night was Loren Coleman, who I'd met early that day. Once again, I couldn't record this with my camera because of the battery. Loren spoke generally about Cryptozoology and how he got into it starting with yetis. He showed various comically photo-shopped images of himself such as him as a yeti or in lego form. His presentation had a lot of jokes in it about pop-culture and even politics. We had to leave about half way into the talk because we'd gotten tickets for the hayride. We had gotten the latest hayride there was and there wasn't really an alternative that we knew of. 'The Hayride' So we left and went down to the Farm museum. We stood in-line next to the stage listening to The Mothman Band preform as the hayride carts picked up people, drove away and came back. The hayride vehicle consisted of a metal trailer with hay on top of it being pulled by a guy on a tractor. We climbed on board, our guide was Jeff Wamsley, he stood at the front of the vehicle holding on to a wooden stick that was attached at the front for stability. It was almost pitch black as the hay ride took us across the farmland and into the forested parts of The TNT Area. It was like Jeff was leading us through the river Styx. Ahead was a small building and a wooden street lamp casting a yellowish orange glow. A man dressed in all black was leaning against the shack almost out of view. As we approached he stood to his feet and suddenly two other men identically dressed in black appeared and walked beside him up to the vehicle. "Excuse me sir, we're gonna have to ask you to pull this vehicle over" said one of the men. It was the friends of Jeff's daughters dressed as The Men In Black. They playfully harassed the people and tried to stop the vehicle. One person on the ride had a dog with them which prompted the guys dressed as the Men In Black to say "Look out! She's got a furry creature on board!". The hayride simply continued, it trekked on through the woods with brush on either side. There were red lights serving as eyes lurking in some of the bushes. We passed the aqueducts which Jeff said the locals call Stonehenge. There were people in white hazmat suits covered by fog playing tug-of-war with an alien prop. There were national guard vehicles parked in the area with green Christmas lights thrown over them for the tour. Then were was a person dressed as Mothman with red glowing eyes yet the costume resembled that of a scarecrow. As we passed the figure, it leaped out slightly and a loud screech played from some speakers. Then the hayride drove past another Man In Black who was standing eerily by the brush with his hands locked together. I would say he was a manikin if his head didn't follow the vehicle as we drove on. Then the best part, Jeff said "You've gotta keep your eyes pealed up through here, Theres been a few recent sightings". We saw a life-sized Mothman much like the one that hangs in the Mothman museum. It was attached to the tree by a cord and as we continued on It suddenly took off and flew over head on a zip-line as another loud screeching scream sound effect played. Then two guys in Bigfoot costumes jumped out at the vehicle. The hayride came to an end as we passed the Men In Black once again. They shouted things like "Told you not to do it Wamsley!" was we made our way back to the farm museum. We exited the hayride and went back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for day two of The 2016 Mothman Festival. 'The TNT Bus Tour' We awoke the next morning and drove back to the festival. The first thing we had to do was go on The TNT Bus Tour. I was able to record the whole tour because I'd charged my camera batteries over night. We boarded the bus and departed through town towards The TNT Area. The tour guide, who was Jeff Wamsley's niece, gave a general overview of the Mothman legend and shared perspectives. She was joined by her friend named Elmer and of course the bus driver. Most of the information was stuff I knew about before such as the famous Scarberry and Mallette sighting, The Silver Bridge Collapse, The Sandhill crane explanation and Chief Cornstalk. They did bring up a few things I hadn't heard before such as a naval yard in the area and a time that Linda Scarberry apparently saw The Mothman in town on the roof of her house. We arrived at The TNT Area which my sister, her boyfriend and I had previously been to months before. The pond had somehow actually gotten greener and more gross looking than before. We went with the group into one of the bunkers. They gave some history of the bunkers We looked around and then everyone got back on the bus. They gave more general information as we drove back to Main street. I enjoyed the bus tour even thought I think our previous trip to The TNT Area was actually more thorough because we went to multiple bunkers and spent more time there. The bus tour was still fun in its own way as more of a tourism thing. One interesting tidbit I learned was that Jeff's niece was one of the people that participated in Joe Nickell's test that he did on "Monster Quest". It was the one where they made different sized Mothman cut outs and had people in cars drive by and try to determine the size and distance. After we'd returned from the bus tour, we walked around trying to various festival foods. I had cheese Cake on a stick dipped in chocolate, Deep fried mushrooms, Deep fried mac and cheese bites, noodles from a wok and freshly made strawberry lemonade while I was there. 'Guest Speakers, John and Tim Frick' Then we returned to the theater. The guest speakers were John and Tim Frick. They're paranormal investigators, they were in the Eyes of The Mothman Documentary, they made the flying Mothman that hangs in the Mothman museum as well as in the hayride and they've also dressed as the Men In Black during festivals. They spoke separately on unoridnary experiences they've had investigating things like The TNT Area and the Native American burial mounds. They showed strange photos they captured during their travels and also photos of John Keel, including pictures from Keel's childhood, a photo of Keel's mother and a photo John and Tim Frick meeting with John Keel. The talk involved some very interesting topics and you could tell that the brothers were inspired greatly by Keel's work. After the presentation was over, we used the time in-between speakers to go back to the Vendors. I went to a table that had a ton of books and got several Mothman and UFO related books. I even went back to Andy Finkle's table and bought another painting. 'Round Table Discussion' When it was time, went to hear the Round Table Discussion which was composed of several guest speakers. At the beginning and throughout the entire talk they once again brought up beings traveling through dimensions. I was surprised that they were spending so much time talking about this idea. It seemed as if that was the theme of this panel discussion. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who favors this idea and is interested by it. I've always considered Mothman more Sci-fi than anything with bits of old fashioned West Virginia Superstition thrown in such as dark omens and premonitions. I guess it just goes to show that these researchers know topics to talk about. In the 50's and 60's when Space travel was the big thing. They considered a lot of this stuff to be Extraterrestrial, but since we've been to space and know more about the low probability of beings from other planets ever actually encountering us, they're moving onto to different explanations such as dimension travel. The Multiverse Theory and other dimensions if the new big thing and we'll have to learn more about that and maybe even travel to another dimension before we know if this explanation is at all viable. Until then we can only speculate and wonder. During the talk one of the speakers said something that I sort of considered profound. He was talking about if you see a strange creature in the woods, that maybe you're looking in to another dimension and so are they. You report to your friends in your world what you've seen and he reports to his friends in his world what he's seen. Strangely enough it actually reminds me of something Friedrich Nietzsche said. "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." To see The Mothman is to be seen by The Mothman. When you look into these strange things, these things look into you. The void stares back. Investigators like Keel are said to experience this first hand as they themselves become part of the folklore. Another interesting thing a speaker said was that with the sheer amount of people seeing these unoridnary things, they can't all be crazy. Even though I don't believe in these strange creatures just based on the anecdotal evidence and sightings. I also don't think that most of them are crazy, I think that this mis-sight could happen to anyone and that's where a lot of folklore comes from. Ordinary people seeing false things. The number of people seeing these things could mean that this is part of the human condition. As social animals, people need others around to verify reality or to be sure of what we've seen. We all lean on others that we trust to help decipher our reality. When you see something strange you might instinctive turn to your friends and say "What was that?". Living in small towns or isolated areas can cause some to misunderstand what they're seeing and when everyone else claims that something looks a certain way perhaps you'll see it too. A lot of strange creature reports and folklore comes from the Midwest. Its as if reality becomes loose, hard to decipher or distorted among the people. The bordem and lack of things to do could be a contributing factor as well. I enjoyed all the guest speakers I listened to during the festival. They had different perceptions and ways to look at things that I really appreciated. After the Round Table Discussion was over, we exited the theater. We found and took pictures with the Mothman Costume and a guy dressed as The Men In Black. 'The River Museum' Then we journeyed down the street away from the festival. We had one last thing to see before we went home and it was The River Museum which had information and artifacts from The Silver Bridge. The museum had a lot more to offer than we thought. It was two stories tall with several large rooms filled with old boating gear and photos. They even had an aquarium, a thirteen minute video to watch about The Silver Bridge Collapse and two boat driving simulators. There were tons of interesting things to look at. We really didn't expect there to be so much. We thought it'd be a simple thing but the River museum was over twice the size of The Mothman Museum. They also had a model of The Silver Bridge with miniature cars placed atop it. I ran out of battery in my camera at this point. We couldn't stay long because it was almost there closing time. They did have a small bit of Mothman stuff at the front desk along with their River Museum merchandise. They had signed copies of The Eyes of The Mothman documentary. The guy who made it was apparently there at one point. I bought one of those and as we were preparing to leave we had a good conversation with the lady who worked there. We talked about our experience at the festival, getting a hotel and how impressed we were by the museum. We got free West Virginia pins as we exited. We walked back to the car and drove home. It was difficult to believe the festival was actually over. 'Conclusion' On the way home we causally listened to the CD of the Woodrow Derenberger Interview that we got from Susan Sheppard. I sat in the back seat, looked at some of the books I'd purchased and reflected on the trip. The Mothman Festival 2016 was great. To see all these people actually appreciating the folklore, to see how seriously they took it, the importance and the meaning that the guest speakers and the crowd had placed upon the Mothman, was something worth experiencing. Category:Blog posts